"Oh, Blood in the Shape of Texas"

That was what Danny said today, looking at the drop of blood on the hospital sheet in the pediatric unit of the emergency room.

Let me start at the beginning...

OK, you know the kids have been sick... yada, yada, yada. Annelise developed a fever on Friday afternoon, a mild one, usually at 101 or 102. This morning I decided I better take her to the clinic to make sure she doesn't have an infection before we board the plane to New Hampshire tomorrow morning. At the clinic her temp was 101.5, and everything checked out OK, but because of the diarrhea and fever, the doctor (wisely) thought we should have lab work done at the ER. So after 1 1/2 hours at the clinic, I stop by to pick up Randy (there is absolutely no way I am going to the hospital alone with both kids for who knows how long!).

At the ER there were a lot of kids (including a poor boy about Danny's age who had cut off the tip of his finger with a hammer!!!!). When we got the first call to go back, the nurse took A's temp and it was 104.5!!!! I was shocked! She got some Motrin right away and they decided to definitely do blood work, get a urine sample (on a baby... oh, not fun.), and maybe give her an IV. We had to wait for a room to open up, though. So here we are in the waiting room and Annelise wants to get down and walk and play! The weird thing about Annelise is that unless she is throwing up, she is very rarely lethargic. She is a feisty one!

Then we get called back to the pediatric room. All sorts of horrible things happen to Annelise at the hands of the nurse, but she also gets a pic line put in just in case she needs an IV. She was going crazy!!!! They took some blood and then we waited an hour. The doctor came back saying she had a very bad urinary tract infection. She would get antibiotics through an IV and then a prescription that could start tomorrow. Normally she should see the pediatrician the next day, but because we were traveling, and these were the doctor's words: because she doesn't act or look like a sick baby, we could wait until Friday. He felt like we should be OK to travel, and with the antibiotics, the fever should go down.

The IV experience was pretty hysterical. Annelise is trying to walk/crawl around the room. She wants to push the buttons on the stand, and Randy is trying to follow her around with that big pole. Good thing it only took about 20 minutes. During the IV, Danny looks at the sheet and comes out with that statement about the drop of blood. And guess what? He was right... it did look a lot like Texas.

5 1/2 hours after I arrived at the clinic this afternoon, we are leaving the emergency room and I am baffled by this thought. Annelise was the child that required our first visit to an emergency room, not Danny!

These pics were taken with my phone, so they aren't the best, but they show you our sweet little girl!